Shame on Senator Kamala Harris. But if you remember only one point
from this article, forget Kamala Harris and recall the words of James
Baldwin who famously wrote that, "The state of Israel was not created
for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the
Western interests."
It seems to me that a large number of Black Politicians have
compromised their long standing social values in order to appear to be
unquestionable, Patriotic Americans. In so doing, they have been
rendered useless to the cause of Black Justice in America, or Human
Respect among the down trodden billions of the world.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/27/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Alternet
>
> Published on Alternet (https://www.alternet.org)
>
> Home > By Clasping Hands with Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself
> as Just Another 'Progressive Except For Palestine'
>
> By Clasping Hands with Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself as
> Just
> Another 'Progressive Except For Palestine'
>
> By Hamzah Raza [1] / AlterNet [2]
>
> December 18, 2017, 10:43 AM GMT
>
> As the second black female senator in American history, Kamala Harris has
> been a pioneer in American politics. Many consider her to be a serious
> contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Harris has
> even been branded [3] by the New York Times as a "'Top Cop' in the era of
> Black Lives Matter," a tip of the hat to the former California attorney
> general's progressive politics and support for issues of social justice.
> But
> while Harris has been praised as someone who fights racism in the United
> States, some critics feel she has failed to be consistent in that approach
> abroad.
>
> On November 20, California Sen. Kamala Harris met [4] with Israeli Prime
> Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Through the meeting, Harris ignored the
> avalanche of officially sanctioned [5] anti-black racism in Israel, turned
> her back on historic black solidarity with the Palestinian cause and
> ignored
> the human rights demands of Palestinians living under apartheid. She
> revealed herself as the latest in a long line of "Progressives Except for
> Palestine," and one of the most egregious examples given her personal and
> political background.
>
>
>
>
>
> The day before Netanyahu's meeting with Harris, the Israeli prime minister
> announced [9] a plan to expel 40,000 non-Jewish African migrants, branding
> the asylum seekers as "infiltrators" whose existence poses a threat to
> Israel's "Jewish character." This came after years of anti-black protests
> in
> Israel where Israeli politicians across the political spectrum, including
> those from Netanyahu's own party, made statements referring [10] to African
> immigrants as a "cancer" and "emitting a bad stench" and "likely to cause
> all kinds of diseases."
>
> Historical black solidarity with Palestine
>
> For over half a century, black Americans have stood in solidarity with the
> Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. The Student Nonviolent
> Coordinating Committee [11], the Black Panther Party [12], and the Southern
> Christian Leadership Conference [13] were all groups that consistently
> stood
> in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Malcolm X [14], Angela Davis [15]
> and Stokely Carmichael [11] were passionate opponents of Zionism and James
> Baldwin famously wrote [16] that, "The state of Israel was not created for
> the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western
> interests."
>
> In the present day, black intellectuals such as Michelle Alexander [17],
> Eddie Glaude [18], Alice Walker [19] and Cornel West have all endorsed a
> movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, to pressure the
> state
> of Israel to comply with international human rights conventions. West has
> referred [20] to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza as "the hood on
> steroids." Athlete Colin Kaepernick has endorsed [21] the BDS movement. The
> Movement for Black Lives platform supported the BDS movement and condemned
> Israel as an apartheid state. Black Lives Matter activists have been taking
> yearly solidarity trips to Palestine since 2014. The most recent trip
> included [22] rapper Vic Mensa, who is currently on tour with Jay Z. Black
> artists such as Snoop Dogg, Future and Lauryn Hill have refused [23] to
> perform in Israel, in cooperation with the BDS movement's call for cultural
> boycott of Israel.
>
> Black American solidarity with Palestine has been accompanied by a broader
> international black solidarity with Palestine. The African Charter on Human
> and Peoples Rights, ratified by 53 of 54 African nations, calls [24] for
> the
> elimination of Zionism as necessary to bringing about an end to racism.
>
> A week after Harris' meeting with Netanyahu, Mandla Mandela, the grandson
> of
> Nelson Mandela and Member of Parliament in South Africa, visited occupied
> Palestine and stated [25] that "Palestinians are being subjected to the
> worst version of apartheid." Mandela cited the words of his grandfather,
> who
> said that, "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the
> Palestinians."
>
> Israel's racist demographic engineering
>
> At a speech at AIPAC in 2016, Harris cited [26] her biracial background as
> her inspiration for supporting the US sending tens of billions of dollars
> in
> aid to the Israeli military. Yet the Israeli government demands its right
> to
> engineer demographic purity through violence, walls and laws that have
> forbidden Palestinian residency in certain areas and even restrict
> marriages
> between Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza and Israeli
> citizens.
>
> Her opportunism mirrors that of another Democratic black senator in
> Congress, Cory Booker. Last December, I attended [27] a town hall with
> Booker. After the town hall, a constituent asked Booker about illegal
> settlements in the West Bank that were destroying his family's village in
> Palestine. In response, Booker brought the conversation around to Israel's
> "right to defend herself." When I asked Booker if he considered Israel to
> be
> an apartheid state, he responded "no."
>
> Booker is one of the leading recipients of pro-Israel cash, which goes a
> long way toward explaining how he can so shamelessly square his pro-Israel
> politics with rhetorical support for civil rights in America.
>
> Progressive Democrats rally for Palestinian human rights while Harris turns
> her back
>
> By clasping hands with Netanyahu, Harris stood against the historical
> momentum for justice that is even sweeping through the halls of Congress.
>
> This past June, 35 members of Congress wrote [28] a letter in support of
> Issa Amro, an activist from the occupied city of Hebron who has been lauded
> as the Palestinian Gandhi for his nonviolent approach to confronting
> Israeli
> occupation. Israel's occupation authorities had put Amro on trial for 18
> trumped-up charges, ranging from "insulting a soldier" to "assault."
> Amnesty
> International has stated that "the deluge of charges against Issa Amro do
> not stand up to any scrutiny," describing the charges as "baseless and
> politically motivated." In the letter, the 35 House Democrats defended
> Amro's right to peacefully protest.
>
> On November 14, 10 House Democrats co-sponsored [29] the Promoting Human
> Rights by Ending Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, which
> requires the Secretary of State to annually certify that no American tax
> dollars given in the form of military aid to Israel are used to "support
> military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian
> children."
>
> In an unprecedented move on November 29, 10 Democratic senators wrote [30]
> a
> letter to Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to put a halt to the Israeli
> government's planned demolition of the Palestinian village of Susiya, in
> order to create yet another illegal settlement. Cory Booker and Kamala
> Harris did not sign the letter.
>
> As activists, intellectuals, entertainers, and progressive forces within
> the
> Democratic Party began to advocate for Palestinians living under
> occupation,
> Harris remains a prisoner of her own opportunism. Desperate to remain in
> good standing with the powerful pro-Israel lobby, Harris has attempted to
> reconcile her progressive politics at home with her support for an
> apartheid
> regime that is responsible for racism and violence against communities of
> color abroad.
>
>
>
>
> Hamzah Raza is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
> Tennessee.
> Follow him on Twitter @hr609.
>
>
>
>
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>
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>
>
>
>
>
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [31]
>
>
> [32]
>
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> Source URL:
> https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/kamala-harris-progressive-except-p
> alestine
>
>
> Links:
> [1] https://www.alternet.org/authors/hamzah-raza
> [2] http://alternet.org
> [3]
> https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/magazine/kamala-harris-a-top-cop-in-the-e
> ra-of-black-lives-matter.html
> [4] https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/932684579097534465?lang=en
> [5]
> https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/israel-white-supremacy-anti-black-
> racism-african-refugees-ethiopian-jews
> [6] https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
> [7] https://t.co/L5qdcgwWG0
> [8]
> https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/932684579097534465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
> [9]
> http://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-deport-40000-african-refugees-without-their-c
> onsent/a-41443084
> [10]
> https://www.thenation.com/article/israels-new-racism-persecution-african-mig
> rants-holy-land/
> [11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0Etv9BPE4
> [12]
> http://blacklivesmatteralliancebroward.org/why-the-black-panther-party-pales
> tine-solidarity-is-still-relevant-today/
> [13]
> http://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/21/archives/civil-rights-leader-backs-cause-o
> f-plo-after-meeting-at-un.html
> [14] http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_zion.htm
> [15]
> https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/angela-davis-supp
> ort-bds-and-palestine-will-be-free
> [16] https://www.thenation.com/article/open-letter-born-again/
> [17] http://fpif.org/gaza-ferguson-exposing-toolbox-racist-repression/
> [18]
> https://www.huffingtonpost.com/usaama-alazami/princetons-faculty-petiti_b_61
> 29440.html
> [19]
> https://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/28/palestine_conditions_more_brutal_than
> _in
> [20]
> http://portside.org/2015-03-09/cornel-west-gaza-hood-steroids-thanks-israel
> [21]
> https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/colin-kaepernick-pays-p
> rice-standing-justice
> [22]
> https://www.facebook.com/PalestineInAmerica/photos/pcb.1510906112332666/1510
> 905985666012/?type=3
> [23]
> https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171030-growing-number-of-hip-hop-artists
> -cancel-gigs-in-israel-report/
> [24] http://www.achpr.org/instruments/achpr/
> [25]
> https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mandla-Mandela-Israel-Imposing-Worst-
> Version-of-Apartheid-20171129-0003.html
> [26] https://twitter.com/zaidjilani/status/862028753433702400
> [27]
> https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/meet-cory-bookers-top-donor-group-
> right-wing-islamophobic-pro-israel-outfit-backs
> [28]
> https://www.fcnl.org/updates/35-reps-stand-up-for-palestinian-human-rights-9
> 10
> [29] http://mondoweiss.net/2017/11/palestinian-introduced-congress/
> [30]
> https://theintercept.com/2017/11/29/in-unprecedented-move-ten-democratic-sen
> ators-write-to-israeli-leader-netanyahu-and-demand-he-halt-demolition-of-pal
> estinian-village/
> [31] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?subject=Typo on By Clasping Hands
> with
> Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself as Just Another
> 'Progressive Except For
> Palestine'&body=URL:http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/kamala-har
> ris-progressive-except-palestine
> [32] https://www.alternet.org/
> [33] https://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
>
>
>
>
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